SAUK CENTRE, Minn. – The country’s leading turkey producing state is getting ready for the Thanksgiving season, but are the turkeys ready?
Turkey farm owner Rick Klaphake, of Sauk Centre, MN, takes all the necessary precautions in order to keep his turkeys content and free from any outside contacts that may carry the bird flu.
Before entering the barn, visitors must shower and change their clothing and wear disposable plastic boots. The birds are fed via an automated system to prevent human contact with the animals’ food.
The birds are treated this way from the day they are born to the day they leave the farm. Once they leave the farm they are closely monitored, being watched for any sign of illness.
According to the Adopt a Turkey organization, “Female turkeys raised for slaughter in the U.S. are typically allotted a two and a half square-feet of space per bird, while toms [male turkeys] are given three and a half square-feet of space each.”
Putting the birds in such tight confines not only gives the flu virus more of an opportunity to mutate, but it also promotes more battles between the birds, and weakens their immune systems as well.
To prevent injuries due to battles between the turkeys, farmers debeak and detoe the birds. This simply means that the tips of the birds’ beak and toes are cut off. This procedure can lead to infection and excessive bleeding.
The forty-five million turkeys that are slaughtered for Thanksgiving meals across the country need to worry about the deformities they will have to live through in the short fourteen to eighteen weeks of its life.
Turkey’s are being genetically altered to grow faster and larger. Lancaster Farming reports that “If a seven pound human baby grew at the same rate that today’s turkey grows, when the baby reaches 18 weeks of age, it would weigh 1,500 pounds.”
Not only are the birds being altered to grow more quickly in order to increase profit, but they are also being custom built to America’s desire for an all white meat, big-breasted bird.
So the birds have been anatomically manipulated so there is no longer a brown pigment in the bird and they have larger breasts. These changes cause problems for the bird, making it difficult to sustain its own weight and reproduce. This forces farmers to artificially inseminate the birds.
The turkeys must endure these practices in order to provide Americans with the 260 to 300 million turkeys per year that are consumed. The choice is always out there: organic or regular turkey?
Organic Valley Family of Farms has 700 farms in the Wisconsin, says that its first line of defense is to raise healthier birds, and its growers closely monitor their flocks.
While organic farms monitor their birds so do the leading poultry producers, Tyson and Perdue, from the moment the eggs hatch to the finished product.
Whether or not a person opts for organic or regular is a personal preference that is based on the person’s feelings toward the Thanksgiving bird. Happy Thanksgiving!